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Are bettas prone to illness?

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Im planning to get 5 female Bettas for my tank but my local store owner told me bettas are prone to illness + if one got ill they all would, so I was just wondering was he exaggerating or telling the truth?

What???? That's interesting. They don't get sick any more often than other fish, that's assuming they are cared for properly. Any fish put in an unfiltered, unheated tank are going to get sick. Maybe that's what he's referring to.

I'm a member of a betta forum, and the vast majority of sick bettas come from tanks that aren't heated or aren't otherwise maintained properly. Bettas are actually hardier than a lot of fish...thier tolerance to ammonia is slightly higher than typical fish, and they can take water with a low oxygen content, since they go to the surface for air.

One mitigating factor is stress from how they're housed in pet stores. Being in a little cup with no circulation and heat is extremely stressful, and illnesses are more likely to strike in a stressed animal. People lose a lot of bettas because the fish are sick to begin with.

No they aren't prone to illness. That is kind of a silly statement. Any fish can suffer from a disease or other health issue. Sometimes it can be due to how well the aquarium is kept.

Now if the owner was just trying to make the point that if 1 fish in the aquarium got some disease, the other fish in the tank could also contract that disease. If you have a tank with fish and want to add a new fish to it, it usually good practice to quarantine the new fish in a separate tank for 2-3 weeks to make sure it isn't carrying any disease.

Well when I went in I asked if he ever had females in stock as I wanted to get a group and he said they are sometimes difficult to get hold of and hard to keep healthy, if one is ill they will all get it. He made it sound like they wearnt very hardy, but then again I may have misrepresented what he was saying. But its good to know they should be as healthy as any other fish :)

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"Keeping fish for any period of time doesn't make you experienced if you're doing it wrong. What does, is acknowledging those mistakes and learning from them." ~Aeonflame
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Considering that they are kept in little cups while every other fish is kept in filtered aquariums, still I wouldn't say they are prone to illness.

Fin rot seems to be the most common issue, and like it was said above that probably has a lot to do with the fact that they are kept in unfiltered little cups.

In my opinion the most disease ridden fish is by far goldfish. They are prone to getting just about everything, but dropsy and fungus in particular. Swim bladder problems too, although that is easy to fix.

It sounds like the person you spoke to is not very knowledgeable about the fish in question he is trying to explain.

First, females are not "hard to get" in fact, they are usually over abundant, and much cheaper to obtain than males. Most people do not WANT females, so stores just simply see no point in stocking what doesn't sell. I think he was attempting to make a "discard" issue sound more humane than it is. Since the flashier showy males are what most buyers want, many female Betta meet an untimely demise, dying in their cups, if they even make it to a cup.

You can actually tell a good pet store, by how vibrant, healthy, and available their female Betta are. Why? Because they are higher end, more informed and cater to a wider variety of wants than just that "cool looking finned one".

Many Betta, sadly, bought from commercial stores, no matter how good their housing, will die prematurely. Their time "in the cup" can hinder their longevity, and their future ability to stave off illness, and that is a sad fact. However, Betta are not "prone" to illnesses. They are only likely to gain certain ones, because they are forever housed wrongly.

Ich, Velvet, Fin Rot, dropsy, bloat and fatty liver disease, are all sadly common, not because Betta are especially weak to them, but because of the specific mistakes repeated often in their care. Improper heating, filtration, and water conditions. Also, keep in mind, stress from inappropriate tank mates, and the "entertainment" marketed wrongly for Betta such as reflection mirrors which do nothing but stress them out.

As long as the specimens you gain are healthy, and vibrant, there is no reason to believe they will fall pray to illness especially.